The Compact History of the Catholic Church: Revised Edition

By Alan Schreck

Maybe you've wondered just what the Church has to offer. Or maybe you've been tempted to give up on it as you realize its weaknesses. The Compact History of the Catholic Church sweeps through the centuries offering a clear-eyed view of the Church's development and contributions to world history. God's faithfulness and mercy are evident, too, as he continually renews the Church and raises it "again and again from the pit of trouble to new heights of faith, charity and peace."

Now including a handy timeline highlighting major developments and figures from the time of Christ into the twenty-first century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781635823035

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preface

This book came into being when Father Fio Mascarenhas, S.J., then-chairman of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO) in Rome, asked me to write a series of simple lessons on the history of the Catholic Church as a follow-up to the Life in the Spirit Seminars, especially for use in Third World countries.¹ The original manuscript of this text was divided into eight sessions, to be presented by a leader to a group of people.

The reader should be aware of the original purpose of this work. It provides a nontechnical, introductory overview of the Catholic understanding of the Church and its history. I hope that the reader finds it genuinely helpful for this purpose.

I would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of the ICCRO staff in Rome, where I wrote the bulk of this book during two weeks in March 1986. (I completed this updated version in early 2008.) I would also like to thank my wife, Nancy, and my children Paul, Jeanne, Mark, Margaret and Peter for praying and sacrificially supporting me in my writing.

Finally, all praise, glory and honor is due to God, who out of his great love formed a people to be his own and who continually guides his Church as it goes its pilgrim way, until it reaches its glorious completion in the fullness of God’s eternal kingdom!

one

the Catholic Understanding of the Church

What is Christianity all about? What is Catholicism about? Is it only a philosophy of life, a set of teachings to memorize or rules to live by?

No, Christianity is not an idea but a reality that exists in human history. Christianity is about

•a person , Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity;

•a people that God has formed on the earth;

•a way of life that God has given his people.

This book will look at the nature and the history of the people that God has called forth and formed on the earth: the people of God.

How do we know that Christianity and Catholicism are primarily about God’s forming a people to be his own? Let us look at the Bible, the inspired written account of God’s work and revelation.

God’s Plan:

To Form a People

The Old Testament is the story of the people that God was calling forth and teaching in order to bring the human race back into friendship with himself after the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Abraham was the human father of this people because of his faithful response to God’s call. God entered into a covenant with Abraham, a solemn agreement, which was the basis of the relationship between God and his people. Christians call this covenant with Abraham and the Hebrew (Jewish) people the old covenant because it was later replaced by a new covenant, as was predicted by Jeremiah the prophet:

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke.

…But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31–32, 33–34)

The Old Testament tells us the story of God’s mercy and patience in forming and teaching this old covenant people, called the nation of Israel, or the Jewish people. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us, however, that this old covenant was limited and imperfect. The way of life that God gave the people of the old covenant was expressed in the Law, especially the Ten Commandments, which God gave the people through Moses; but the people often broke the Law because it was only external; it was not written upon their hearts.

The old covenant was not the final plan of God. God was preparing the people of the old covenant for something else— something better. God was preparing them for the coming of the Messiah, the anointed one of God who would establish the new covenant, which would bring God’s work to completion and fulfillment. The New Testament continues the story of God’s forming a people, the people of God of the new covenant.

God had a tremendous surprise for his people. The Messiah that the people of the old covenant awaited was not to be an ordinary human being or even a divine messenger like an angel. The Messiah of Israel would be God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who would assume our human nature and live among us as a man—Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior sent by God the Father to bring the old covenant to completion and to form a new people, the people of the new covenant.

At his Last Supper with his apostles, Jesus took the cup of wine and said, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20). Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross of Calvary, sealed and began a new covenant, a new relationship between God and man. The blood of Jesus shed on the cross brought forgiveness for all the sins of humankind. As the prophet Jeremiah said, I [God] will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:34).

The death and resurrection of Jesus began the life of a new people of God, the people of the new covenant. This people believed that Jesus was truly the Savior sent by God; they believed that God had confirmed this by raising Jesus from death—by the Resurrection. This people then received new life through the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised to send to them. Jesus said: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (John 16:12–13).

The fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, a major Jewish feast, when 120 followers of Jesus were praying together in Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit rested on each of them like tongues as of fire (Acts 2:3). This was the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy that God’s law would be put within them and written upon their hearts. As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

The Holy Spirit also enables the new people of God to know God personally and to understand his will and guidance from within, rather than as an external set of rules. Truly, the people of God who have received Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit have no need to ask others, Who is God? for they all know God, from the least of them to the greatest, as Jeremiah prophesied (see Jeremiah 31:34).

God’s New Covenant People:

The Church

The Church is the people of God of the new covenant! They are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God who was raised from the dead. They are the people who have received the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of God, into their hearts and through the Spirit have the life and power of God within them.

What is the name of this new people of God? The New Testament calls the followers of Jesus the saints (see Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2), God’s beloved (Romans 1:7), Christians (Acts 11:26) and followers of the Way (Acts 19:23). However, the most common name for God’s people of the new covenant, the name that has lasted over many centuries, is the Church. Although the word church is found most frequently in the Acts of the Apostles and the various letters of the New Testament, even Jesus is reported to have used this word for his people. We read in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus’ words to Peter: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death [literally, ‘the gates of hades’] shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

Jesus called the Church my church. He is the founder of the Church. He said the Church would never be destroyed: The powers of death shall not prevail against it. Why? Because Jesus promised to remain with his Church until the end of time. Jesus assured his apostles immediately before his ascension into heaven, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:20).

Jesus will never leave or abandon his Church because he loves it to the point of dying for it on the cross. The Letter to the Ephesians beautifully tells us of the love of Christ for the Church when it speaks of the Church as the bride of Christ:

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior…. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her …, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.… This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:23, 25–27, 32)

The fulfillment of Jesus’ work of preparing his bride, the Church, for himself is described in the book of Revelation. Christ, the Lamb of God, weds his bride, the Church, at the end of time: ‘The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints (Revelation 19:7–8).

This is what God is doing in human history. He is forming a people, a bride for his Son Jesus Christ, and purifying the Church so it will be ready when Christ comes again in glory. We know that this work of purification is not yet complete. Although we can see the righteous deeds of the saints, we also know that there is still sin in the Church, for Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners (see Luke 5:32). Yet in spite of the evident sin and weakness in the Church, Christ still loves it enough to die on the cross for his people, the Church.

It is evident that the history of the Church is marked by both sin and weakness as well as by the grace and protection of God. This is because the Church is not only a divine reality but also human, like Jesus himself. Unlike Jesus, however, the Church is not totally free from sin but is in the process in each age of being freed from sin and being conformed to the image of Jesus, the head of the Church.

The Gospels are full of stories of sinners being redeemed— prostitutes, the self-righteous and even apostles like Peter. All of them needed mercy and forgiveness. What is true in the Gospels is true of the Church throughout history.

In spite of the sin in the Church today and in history, Christians are called not to criticize or to sit in judgment over the Church but to love the Church as Jesus does. We, as members of the Church, are sinners ourselves. Yet Jesus loves us enough to die for us to free us from our sin and weakness. The same is true of the Church as a whole. Despite its sinfulness Christ loves the Church and looks upon it as his beloved bride. God is at work to purify and renew his people, his Church. Each of us should say, with Cardinal Suenens, I love the Church, wrinkles and all!¹ We love the Church in spite of imperfections, because Jesus Christ loves it and died to redeem his people.

When we say the Church, what do we mean? Do we mean the Catholic Church or a universal church of all who believe in Jesus Christ? We cannot answer this question completely in this chapter, but we can briefly look at four characteristics or essential marks of the Church that are expressed in the Nicene Creed (AD 381): We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. In doing this and in examining in later chapters the history of the Church from a Catholic perspective, we will better understand the meaning of the word church as it is understood from the Catholic Christian viewpoint.

The Church Is One

The authors of the New Testament understood there was only one Church, one people of God of the new covenant. Although the apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia (Galatians 1:2) and the church of God which is at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:2), he knew that these local gatherings of Christians were all part of the one Church of Jesus Christ, much as a single corporation or business might have many plants or branches in different locations.

Paul himself was a strong defender of the unity of the Church. He corrected the Christians in Corinth for dividing into opposed groups with different leaders (see 1 Corinthians 1:10–13). He wrote to the Christians in Ephesus to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3), insisting that there is one body and one Spirit,…one hope…, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all (Ephesians 4:4–6).

The Acts of the Apostles records two instances in which disputes among Christians threatened to divide the early Church. In Acts 6 the primitive Church in Jerusalem underwent a serious disagreement between Hebrew-speaking and Greek-speaking Christian converts from Judaism concerning the distribution of food to the widows in the Church. Acts 15 reports the most serious disagreement that challenged the unity of the Church in the first century: the question of whether gentiles needed to be circumcised according to Jewish law before they could become Christians. In both cases the disputes were resolved peacefully by meetings, or councils, of the leaders (elders) of the Church, who found resolutions to these questions through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Instead of dividing into two churches when serious disagreements arose, the early Christians sought earnestly to preserve the oneness of the Church.

The early Christians valued unity so much because Jesus did. In the account of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers: that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (John 17:21).

The basis of this unity is love: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). The love of Christ is the basis and source of the unity of his people, the Church. The Holy Spirit is often viewed as the love that unites Christians, just as he is the bond of unity between the Father and the Son in the Blessed Trinity.

The Catholic Church has always stressed the oneness or unity of the Church. We understand this unity as both an invisible unity of love, the unity of the Holy Spirit, and also a visible unity that is expressed in the outward forms of the Church: leaders, creeds and other beliefs and sacraments, for example. Authority and

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A very short basic history of the Catholic Church originally intended as a textbook for a series of classes in developing countries